The economy may be getting better, but unemployment is still high. Companies slashed budgets and personnel last year, but as the economy begins to recover, the creation of jobs is not falling in line.

The lack of new jobs continues to be an issue even for San Francisco Bay Area tech companies. So, how are unemployed developers and technologists supposed to find work? One solution: learn new skills.

Drupal is a free software package that makes publishing and managing social content on the Web easy. It's been downloaded more than 2 million times to date. And though Drupal has been around for more than nine years, it's become more credible over the last several due in part to a dedicated community and the fact that high-profile government Web sites such as whitehouse.gov and corporations like Warner Bros. records have adopted the open-source content-management system.

I recently learned that there are more jobs available working with Drupal than there are employees to fill them. According to John Faber, COO at AF83, a Drupal development shop, they're so busy with projects that they've had to turn away business. And it's the same for many other Drupal specialists in San Francisco. There's a clear need for bodies skilled in Drupal and other open-source software, including Linux.

Faber and other Drupal users are organizing this year's DrupalCon, the Drupal community conference being held April 19 to 21 in San Francisco, hosting training sessions for anyone who wants to learn Drupal. Training from the world's best Drupal shops that normally costs more than $1,500 will cost $150 to $350 at DrupalCon. That includes everything from introductory courses for novices just getting started to more advanced sessions for people wanting to brush up. And it's all available the day before the conference begins, April 18 at Moscone Center.

Inexpensive training for a desirable technology that is useful for jobs is a great idea. And Drupal is easy enough to use that virtually anyone in technology can get up to speed quickly. It's worth checking out--especially if it leads to a spanking new job.

Discuss: Need a job? Learn Drupal

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